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Council warned off €3m bog field

The plot is worth just €400,000 at today’s prices but Wicklow county council felt legally obliged to pay the inflated price for it after a seven-year delay

Stephen Dunne

November 20 2011, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

Wicklow county council has finalised a €3m compulsory purchase order (CPO) on 3.5 acres of land for social housing, despite being warned the site was a “bog” which regularly flooded.

Documents which have been seen by The Sunday Times show the council was aware sections of the land which borders the Three Trout stream in Charlesland, Greystones, could not be built upon. Files released to councillors last month claim the site was flooded three times in the seven years prior to the CPO in 2004. They show the site’s value is affected by “severe” access restrictions.

After a seven-year delay caused by the death of William Irwin, the landowner, the local authority has finalised the CPO, paying €3m for the plot, which is worth just…

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